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“Well you need to feed that kid,” Sylvia said. “Go get some food. If they say anything, they can charge it to my room.”
“Syl…Syl…Sylvia Fa…fa…Foxx!” Penny called out, doing her best DJ announcer voice to fuck with Sylvia.
Not anymore, babe. Not anymore.
These were the things she loved about her best friend and she decided right then that no matter where Penny went or what was to come from this trip, Sylvia wasn’t going to leave her side. She would go to this island and live in a fucking hut if she had to, but she needed to be around the one person who actually gave a shit about her. The only person she had left in the whole world. Her best friend. Sylvia would be single if she had to, but she’d be near Penny.
I mean, hopefully I’m not single. Who knows. Maybe Penny will hook me up with someone…eventually.
As Penny sat down with a plate that looked more like the Leaning Tower of Pisa with pancakes piled on top of waffles that were held in place by toast, sausages, eggs, and bacon, the girls chatted. They caught up on all the things that happened to each of them recently. Sylvia told her about her radio gig and how it had stopped satisfying her the way it always had in the past. She used to get off on the fact that so many male listeners loved her and cons
tantly called in to comment on the sound of her sexy voice. She enjoyed the music and being in charge of caressing her listeners’ eardrums as they drove through the night or made love with her show tuned in. It was power. But then it seemed pointless.
Penny told her about life on the island. She’d spent most of her time hanging out with the kids and talking with her new friends. Ruby sounded like a riot and Sylvia was sure they’d get along. It was weird listening to her friend describe so many other people who’d taken her place in Penny’s life. She only hoped there was still enough room there for her to move in and fill that that void she’d left in Penny’s life when she’d pushed her away.
“Are there a lot of men on the island?” Sylvia asked.
“Plenty,” she said, “but unfortunately I don’t know if any of them are chomping at the bit to get a piece of some fresh, hot ass. Most of them are taken already, or at least loosely spoken for.”
“If I were to go back there with you,” Sylvia said. “I feel like I’d be the newcomer on one of those reality shows. Like I’d be that one who shows up and everyone thinks is trying to steal their man. I don’t want anyone to hate me, Penny. I don’t think I could handle that.”
“First of all,” Penny said, “Are you seriously thinking of moving out to the island with us?”
“The thought crossed my mind,” Sylvia said. “I don’t think there’s a place for me anymore back home. I’m like a zombie there. Seeing how you’ve changed and witnessing how happy you are now, I think it’s making me realize that I want some of that.”
“Well I hope some of that doesn’t mean Thane,” Penny said with a laugh, “Because he’s really the main reason I’m happy.”
“Get the fuck out of here,” Sylvia said. “Of course not. You called dibs.”
Both girls laughed. It seemed like so long ago that they’d used that one single word to mark their rights to go after a guy.
Dibs.
“Besides,” Sylvia said. “Don’t give him so much credit. Yes, he healed you, but you made the decision to abandon your old life and move here. Even when I told you it was a bad idea and tried to talk you out of it, you took control of your life. I admire you for that. You could have taken what most would have seen as the easy route and went home. But you didn’t. You risked it and moved to some island in the middle of nowhere to live with a bunch of shark people.”
“I love how you make my life sound like some kind of bad TV show,” Penny said.
“Actually, it sounds like a cool TV show,” Sylvia argued. “I’d watch it.”
“So would I,” Penny agreed. “So, what now? You want to pack your bags and come with me to the island?”
Sylvia took a deep breath. This was the moment of truth. This was when she decided to give it a try, if she could even force herself to go near the water. She’d stayed far away from the ocean ever since the massacre on the barge. Now, here she was, contemplating taking a trip across the ocean to live on an island completely surrounded by water. If there was a better test of strength, a better proof of willpower, she couldn’t think of one.
“Maybe I should visit first,” Sylvia said. “Baby steps, you know?”
“If you visit,” Penny said. “You won’t want to leave. At least I didn’t.”
“Show me,” Sylvia replied.
So, she did. Twenty minutes later, Sylvia had a small carry-on suitcase packed with clothes and was following Penny down to the docks. The wooden planks that led to a more solid, concrete structure, showed the water beneath, and immediately Sylvia’s head began to spin.
“I don’t know if I can do this,” she said.
To both sides of her, boats danced lazily and the gentle sound of water sloshing around made her stomach flip inside out. She remembered that feeling on the barge. The wooden planks that became coated in blood. Like a layer of red paint tossed at her feet, she’d done her best to stand and move toward the middle of the flat structure, but she’d slipped in all that blood and had fallen to the planks hard, smashing her knee against the wood. Standing there at the docks, she could practically feel the instant bruising and swelling of her knee.
“Sylvia,” Penny said, reaching out for her hand. “We can go back to the hotel if you want to, but the boat is right up here. I know you can do this.”
“I’m scared,” Sylvia admitted.
